On South Georgia alone there are at the present time eight stations with headquarters in Norway, Great Britain, and Argentina, and the South Shetlands, Falkland, South Orkney, and Kerguelen Islands are the homes of many floating factories and permanent stations.
It is true that because of its remoteness the cost of whaling operations in the far south is very heavy and that the slaughter will cease automatically when the profits are no longer commensurate with the investment, but owing to the extraordinary concentration of whales on these feeding grounds, before that time comes the ravages will have been so great that probably the animals can never again attain a firm hold upon life.
The excessive slaughter in the South Atlantic has a direct effect upon the industry in other parts of the world, for it is very probable that the fin whales go northward from the Antarctic waters into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
In Japan it will be a national catastrophe when whaling ceases, because the diet of the ordinary native would consist of little besides rice, fish, and vegetables were it not for the thousands of tons of whale meat which are distributed fresh or canned to almost the entire Empire, and which furnish a healthful and palatable food at a low cost.
Since labor is very cheap in Japan and especially because each whale is worth an extraordinary amount for food, operations can be carried on long after they would be unprofitable in almost any other part of the world; thus the extermination of whales will undoubtedly be very nearly complete in the Island Empire.
The flesh of the humpback is most highly esteemed for food by the Japanese and this species was consequently very ardently pursued. Although most abundant of all a few years ago, humpbacks are now so rare that only twenty-five or thirty are taken yearly in all Japan. The blue whales are disappearing almost as rapidly and it will not be long before the Japanese will have to depend entirely upon the finback gray, and sei whales.
Unfortunately there appears to be a universal belief that shore whaling is a short-lived industry and that everyone must get for himself the greatest possible share of the profits without regard for the future. It is commercial greed in its worst form, because in the mad scramble for quick money, such pernicious operations as those of the floating factory are inaugurated, and but a small part of the real value of each whale is secured after its life has been taken.
My plea is for proper legislation which will force the industry to develop its great untouched possibilities and save it for the future while yielding a reasonable profit during the present.
But it must be intelligent legislation, for “blanket” laws are worse than none at all. Conditions vary with every place where shore whaling is conducted and laws which were excellent for Newfoundland would be absurd on the coast of British Columbia.
Personally I cannot see how the much-discussed international legislation can be of assistance. It appears to me that local laws are what is needed.